An agreement between Indian dockworker union leaders and labor board officials was reached late Friday, averting a threatened indefinite nationwide strike that would have seriously disrupted operations at the country’s major ports.

The Indian federal government pledged to go ahead with its plans to make major ports independent companies instead of government-controlled landlord ports despite fierce opposition from the highly unionized labor force.

India’s major ports owned by the federal government reported a year-over-year growth in container volumes of 7.5 percent from April 2014 through January 2015, the first 10 months of fiscal year 2014-15, according to provisional port data compiled by JOC.com.

Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (Nhava Sheva), India's largest container gateway, is showing no signs of getting ahead of the congestion problems that have plagued India’s largest container handler for much of 2014.

The persistent congestion clogging major gateway ports in the U.S. and Europe is raising a debate about whether it’s just peak-season volumes causing delays in import shipments or the inability of ports to handle the sharp growth in container ship sizes.

Container throughput at major state-owned ports in India expanded 5.3 percent year-over-year during April to July, the first four months of fiscal year 2014-15, according to preliminary figures released by the Indian Ports Association.

The volume of export and import containers handled at major ports in India slid 3 percent year-over-year in fiscal year 2013-14, from April 2013 to March 2014, but total cargo tonnage inched up 1.78 percent, according to the latest traffic data released by the Indian Ports Association.